What an amazing turnout we had at on March 28 for our fundraiser at Boothbay Craft Brewery. We want to thank all who came to meet the members of the Boothbay Lions and sample the special Lions Tale Ale brewed for the occasion, as well as the many people who bid on the silent auctions. Win and Lori Mitchell were fantastic hosts and quite a few Lions contributed their time and culinary skills to keep us all fed and entertained. We're still waiting for a tally, but this event contributed to our building repair fund to help keep our historic clubhouse up and running for the entire community.

Prior to that great night, we had another fun evening at our March 26 meeting, where we had 27 Lions in attendance. That number includes our two newest members, both sponsored by Alan Tilton: Tom Tavenner and Ken Fitch. Welcome aboard, Tom and Ken!

Also on hand was our guest speaker, Katie Hansberry, state director for the Humane Society of the United States who came to talk to us about the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting campaign. You'll likely see this on the ballot during the next election: it's an initiative to change bear baiting, hounding and trapping in the state. There has been a 30 percent growth in bear population so current methods are not working to keep the population down. There are an estimated 25-30,000 bears in the entire state. For more information, visit www.fairbearhunt.com.

In addition, we spent a lot of this meeting talking about things to come. The Lions district governor from Maine will be on hand at our April 9 meeting to officially induct all of our new members (I believe we're up to eight so far this year). After that our annual Fishermen's Festival pancake breakfast will be held on Saturday, April 26. Looking further ahead, our annual trek out to Cabbage Island will be held on June 29. We're planning to have a booth at the antique auto show on July 19. And we may be holding another golf tournament with the Rotary Club.

In between all of that we'll hold our elections for next year's officers. We're still pulling the full slate of candidates together and will announce it soon.

Fines were pretty heavy this week, going to Lions April and Duane for jumping in line to be served for dinner before the head table (Duane also got fined for being a leprechaun). New member Tom Tavenner and guest Katie Hansberry were fined for both being attorneys, while Ken Fitch was fined for bragging about being somewhere warm recently. (Tail Twister Tom Nickerson acknowledged that we don't usually fine new members or guests, but he did it anyway). King Lion Mike Giles was fined for calling the treasurer "honey."

The winners of the 50/50 and the cheer raffle donated their winnings back to the club.

Our next meeting will be held on April 9, when, as I said, we'll have an induction ceremony for all of our new members. This is always a great event with a lot of meaning, harkening back to Helen Keller's challenge for Lions to be the "knights of the blind." Looking ahead, Amy Hoinsky of Southport will speak about soap making at our April 23 meeting.

That's it for this time around. For more information on the Boothbay Region Lions Club, please contact club president Mike Giles or any other Lion, find us on Facebook, or visit www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/boothbay/index.php.